Stringed musical instrument



F. J. KUMMETH.

STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 10, 1919.

Patented Sept. 26,1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

F. J. KUMMETH.

STRINGED'MUISICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 10, 1919.

1,429,954. ate tedSept. 26,1922. 2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

1 0 \ZJ L50 4 m w V 6' W I 2 Patented Sept. 26, 1922.

N TED- STATES FRANK J. KUMMETH, OF HERON LAKE, M INNESOTA.

s'rnnvenn Musician INSTRUMENT.

Application filed November 10, 1919. Serial No; 336,834.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK J. Ko ME'rH, a citizen of the United States, reslding at Heron Lake, in the county of Jackson, State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Stringed Mu.- sical Instriunents; and l do hereby declare the following to bee lull, clear, and exact description oi. the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a class ot musical instruments and has particular rei erence to an improved stringed instriunent combining the essentialcharacteristics oi a violin and a graphophone orwhatmay be termed a violaphone. The invention has among its particular objects, to improve the construction oi. instruments of this class by providing a novel relation of body, horn and strings, in connection with novelnieans aflt'ording connection between the strings and a series 0t sound boxes including diaphragnis.

Among other objects oi the invention are to provide an efficient arrangement of diaphragins for transmission of the sound. through the body of the instrument to a horn; to produce novel connections for transmitting vibration from the string-sot the instrument to the diaphragnis and for supporting the strings in such a manner that the diaphragnis will. properly respond to them when they are bowed.

ltis a further object of the invention to producea stringed instrument having a tone reseinliiling that ot' a brass instrun'ient the cost of which would be much greater than the instrument oi. the present inven tion.

With the above objects and others in view as will appear as the specification proceeds, the invention comprises certain novel combinations and arrangements oil-parts as will be hereinafter more particularlypoint-- ed out and claimed.

Reference is had drawings forming part oi. this application, wherein like characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, in which i Figure 1 is a side elevation of proved musical instrument, Figure 2 is a plan View, Figure 3 is a cross sectional view taken my iInto the accompanying on the staggered section line 33 of Figure 2, i

Figure l is a cross sectional View taken onthe line -d of Figure 2, and

Figure 5 is an enlarged detail showing one of the pivot sockets of a vibrator bar.

Figure 6 is a detail perspective View of one of. the vibrator bars having one end portion broken away. i

Referring to the drawings in detail, the improvedinstrument is shown as c0nipris-' ing a body 10 preferably of wood, the same being made or substantially triangular cross section corresponding to an equilateral triangle though having the apex thereof truncated or depressed, as shown at 11 so as to facilitate mounting of the tail piece and strings as will be later described. The body is also provided or formed with a tapered extension 12 producing a chin and shoulder rest which may be carved in a scrollor other attractive design and which is of the proper size and shape to fit the chin and shoulder as in the case ofa violin or corresponding instrument. At its other end, the body is provided with a longi tudinal circular bore or opening 13, said body having its longer sides upwardly ta'- pered as shown. lln said bore is received a horn tube 15, which. is provided with a bell 1.6 and said horn tips slightly downward so as to run nearly parallel with the finger board 17 which is mounted upon the flat face 11 at the fore end thereof and upon thehorn tube adjacent to the bell is mounted a suitable. pegboX 18, with the pegs of which the strings of the instrument are connected for I tuning. i

Mounted upon the face 11 is a tail piece and pivot socket plate '19 preferably provided with an intermediate portion of reduced width as shownat 1.9, the end portion 20 thereof disposed toward the fore end oi the body and the finger board, being provided/withJavseries of equidistantly spaced and transversely 'alined conical pivot sockets 21. The opposite end o'f'thetail piece'and plate 19 is turned or bent upon itself as shownat 22andfprovided with a corresponding series oi. conical pivot sockets 23 in the bottom portion thereof, shown in Figure 4t; while the top portion is provided with a series of? string openings 24:

to which the adjacent ends oi the strings 25 are anchored, the strings'extending over said plate and the finger board :tor connection to the pegs oi the tuning apparatus or head 18.

Mounted transversely on the plate 19 is an adjustable bridge including a yoke 26 the sides of which are connected by a bridge piece 27 which is in the form oil? a threaded screw finely threaded on which are mounted a series of grooved nuts or discs 28, one for each string and each serving to permit transverse adjustment oil the string where it crosses the bridge "for a purpose to be hereinafter made apparent In the opposed sloping sides oi? the body 10 and comi'nunicating with the bore 13 which extends from the fore end of the body and terminates in a closed wall spaced from its opposite end, there are provided a series of laterall; v directed openings or passages 29 diverging outwardly and arranged with their axes substantially at right angles to the planes of said opposed faces. These faces are recessed circularly as shown at 30 so as to receive therein a suitable disc or diaphragm 31 oil metal, mica or celluloid held in spaced relation to the bottom of the recess in each instance, by a rubber or like gasket 32 providing a sound space 33 preterably of a thickness of about ol an inch. Uutwardly of the disc there engaged a rubber or other gasket or ring E l, all oi said parts being retained in pos tion through the medium of a metallic gasl st or holding ring screwed or otherwise attached to the body as shown at $136. shown, the recesses are of sligl'ltly smaller diameter than the height of the sides of the body and the metal gaskets or rings 3 51: are also of smaller diameter than the height oil the sides, the

holes or passages 29 being comparativclv small, in tact being smaller than the diameter oi? the bore 13 which comnuu'iicates with the space within the horn or the sound box 15.

Mounted longitudinally on are a series o'l spaced parallel vibrator bars 37, the same having tapered pivot proieo tions 38 extending downwardly there'lrom at each end to engage corresponding sockets 21, the sockets being of considerably lur r diameter than the base iiortions o'l. the pi so that the pivots will contact only at the extreme points or apexes thereol tlr t the points being more acute than the so so as to allow the bars to have l ull ilreedou; to vibrate without distortion oi" the sound waves which will be produced in the playing oi the instrument as will be set forth her aliter. Each bar is provided with an wardly extending arm or lug 99 internz. atelv ot'its length, each lug tapering in thickness t ward its upper end in the di section of the longitudinal dimension of tle bar and notched as shown at l0, each "to receive a string 25 and to effectively retain the plate 19 the string therein, it being understood that the strings may be made of wire, gut or other suitable string material. At one end of each bar there is provided an outwardly extending arm ll rich extends lateri'rom r ally and downwardly a vibrator arm is) the extremity o'l. 'w ch is coniicwteil centrall lo its respective c or diaphrag gn'i. llach vibrator arm is disposed in a plane at right angles in the plane of the disc to which it is connected and each disc or diaphragm disposed with its center in a plane that includes the apex of the pivot 38 oi its respcctive bar 19 so that it a straigl'it line is drawn across the face of the diaphragm it would tall directly across the pivot point of its respective bar. Furthermore, since in the torm illustratei'l, tour strings, tour bars and tour diaphragins are employed, and since the outer bars are connected to the trout diaphragms and the inner bars are connected to the rear diaphragms and are therefore set inwardly Further than the outer bars. the diaphragms Oill the rear bars must correspondingly be set at a lower incline than the front diaphragms to obtain the relation ol parts specified, the arms 42 merely being offset inwardly at a greater distance in addition to the diapln'agnis being set in deeper with respect to the body. The purpose of this is to deliver the full force ol the vi bration ol' the bar to the diaphragm, lior as shown, the lugs 39 radiate or diverge out wardly or said lugs ma be said to extend downwardl and slightly inwardl from the strings at such an angle as to transmit. a vibration to its respective sound disc or diaphragi'n, 'lhus, in playing the instrument as the bow is moved across lhc strings. the bars are vibrated. so that the vibratiohs are transmitted directly to the axis of ca ch diaphragm to produce the strongest and largest possible volume of sound. 7 M

It is also to be understood that the number 01" strings, lugs, diaphrzn, s and related parts may be varied so as to simulah; ring instruments of various laginds wh ch while played in the ordinary manner, will result in a sound beingproducsul simulating that ol. a brass instriunent, and a considcrablr greater volume than would be produced b v the (n-dinary iuslriunent, liltlliillg'li plarcd exactly like the ordinary iii:-;i;:'i.iineiil; without requiring that the violinist or player oi a particular intrunient learn to play the special in;-;tru'" don of i; n-uw tral vi ration ...hed by screwing the discs to the ri left so as to balance the pressure of the strings on their respect ire lugs and thus avoid any possible pressure being transmitteiji to the sound discs or diaphragms of the sound bores carried by the body, which would otherwise result in decreasing the volume of sound produced. i .iso by having the string lugs radiating as described, in order to obtain a neutral vibration, the bow must be drawn at. right angles or perpendicularly to the string and at right angles to its lug, so that the bow will be tilted to different angles in order to clear the idle strings butwill permit engagement with a plurality of strings when necessary in the playing of the instrument.

What is claimed is: i i

l. A. stringed musical instrument comprising a body having a chamber within it, a plurality of tone producing strings supported from the body, a plurality of diaohragms and means connecting each string with a diaphragm for bodily vibration of the diaphragm from the bodily vibration of the string through the bodily movement of the corresponding connecting means.

2. A. stringed musical instrument comprising a body having a chamber within it, a plurality or, strings supported from the body, an oscillatory bar for each string hav mg an arm upon which the string rests for oscillation of the bar in response to. Viblib.

tion of the string, a diaphragm for each bar carried by the body and connection between each bar and the diaphragm for vibration of the latter in response to oscillation of the bar.

The combination with a stringed musical instrument comprising a sound box provided with a diaphragm, oil? a string support movable in response to vibration of the.

string, a connection between the support and diaphragm for vibrating the latter from the support and means for adjusting the support and therewith the string with respect to the diaphragm in the general direction of vibration of the diaphragm. 1

st. In a stringed musical instrument, the combination with a body and a. tone pro ducingvibratory diaphragm carried thereby, oi? a string support carried by the body and vibratory under influence of vibration of the string, connection between the support and diaphragm for vibrating the latter in response to vibratory movement oi the support and a bridge having a member with which the string is engaged, said member being adjustable in a direction transverse to the string and in response to whichthe string and support are adjustable in the general direction of vibration of the diaphragm.

5. A. stringed musical instriuncnt,comprising a body having a passage within it and a series oi lateral holes leading thereto; tone producing diaphragms mounted in the body over said holes, a series of oscillatory bars supported by the body, each having an arm connected to a diaphragm, strings mounted over the bars and supports carried by the bars an d engaged by the strin s.

6. A stringed musical instrument comprising body having a passage within it and a series oi lateral holes leading thereto;

having sound. producing diaphragms mounted in the body over said holes, a series of vibrator bars pivotally supported upon the body and each having an arm connected to a diaphragm, a plate mounted on the body and having a tail piece, a finger board extending from the body, a horn extending from the body, a string tensionin'g means on the horn, strings between the string tensioning means and. the tail piece over said bars, notched lugs on the bars receiving the strings, a bridge on the plate and body and having an adjusting screw traversing the bars and strings, and nuts on said screw having grooves receiving the strings therein.

7. A stringed musical instrument comprising a body having a passage Within it and a series of lateral. holes leading thereto; sound producing diaphragms mounted in the body over said holes, a plate mounted upon the body, sockets formed in spaced series in said plate, bars having pivot points movably fitting said sockets, one end of each bar having an oilset arm connected centrally to a corresponding diaphragm with the diaphragms in alinement with the pivot points and means on the bars for engagement by the strings of the instrument.

8. A stringed musical instrument comprising a body having a passage within and a series of lateral holes leading thereto: sound. producing diaphragms mounted in the body over said holes, a plate mounted upon the body, sockets formed in spaced series in said plate, bars having pivot points movably fitting said sockets, one end of each bar having an oiitset arm connected rentrally to a sound diaphragm, notched lugs projecting upwardly from the bars, strings engaging said lugs and means to adjust the tension of the strings transversely to relieve the diaphragms of pressure.

9. A stringed musical instrument comprising a cross sectionally truncated triangular body having a longitudinal passage within it communicating with one end, a. sound box extending from said. end in the direction of the body, a rest extending from the other end. oi? the body, a plurality of sound producing diaphragms supported at the sloping sides of the body, the body passages within them adjacent thereto, a plurality oi strings supported above the body for lateral movement and rigid connections between the strings and the diaphragms to transmit motion from the strings to the diaphragms directly and at right angles to the diaphragms.

In testimony whereof, ltaiiix. my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

FRANK J. KUMMETH. lVitnesses:

WVM. FRIEDERIOHS, J. J. MALONEY. 

